FIG. 15 of the present application shows a chip resistor disclosed in Patent Document 1 below. The disclosed chip resistor B includes a metal resistor element 90 and a pair of electrodes 91 fixed to the bottom surface 90a of the resistor element. The electrodes 91 are spaced from each other by a predetermined distance s5. Each of the electrodes 91 has its lower surface formed with a solder layer 92.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-57009
When the size of the resistor element 90 is unchanged, the resistance of the chip resistor B is in proportion to the distance s5 between the electrodes 91. Thus, the resistance of the chip resistor B is changed by varying the distance s5. As understood from FIG. 15, to increase the distance s5 decreases the width s6 of each electrode 91, and to decrease the distance s5 increases the width s6.
As described above, in the conventional chip resistor B, the change of the distance s5 affects the width s6, which gives rise to the following problem.
In use, the chip resistor B is soldered to a circuit board, for example. At this stage, each electrode 91 of the resistor B should be properly bonded, electrically and mechanically, to the relevant connection terminal formed on the circuit board. To achieve this, the size of the connection terminal matches the size of the electrode 91. With the conventional design described above, however, the size of the connection terminal needs to be changed every time the resistance of the chip resistor B is changed. Unfavorably, this lowers the productivity of circuit boards and increases the production costs.